HESPERIA 70 (200I) THE TOWERS OF 285-347 Pages ANCIENT LEUKAS RESULTS OF A TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY, I99I-1992 ABSTRACT The authorreports on the resultsof a topographicsurvey in 1991 and 1992 of fifteen Classical tower sites on the Ionian island of Leukas. Plans, photo- graphs,and elevationsof remainsvisible after thorough cleaning are presented, based on drawings to scale in the field and both archivaland recent photo- graphic documentation. A brief history of the explorationof Leukas intro- duces a summary of the two seasons, with detailed description of each site. The date and function of the towers and adjacentstructures are evaluatedin the context of currentresearch on ruralsettlement in classical antiquity,de- fensive architecture,and the regional history of the area. HIIpyos jn96cs,(xoS 7crcx-U([k0xcxSX(I RODUION:HTORY ADTOPOGR1 INTRODUCTION: HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY 1. Leukadianriddle answer: (the The island of Leukas (Lefkaida,in modern Greek) forms a near-peninsula to xocX6cdt):Kontomichis 1995, p. 441. off the northwest coast of Greece, joining Akarnania just south of the 2. Von Warsberg(1879, p. 407) describesit as "the Switzerlandof this entrance to the Ambracian Gulf, below Aktaion (Actium) and Nikopolis archipelago";see Bornovas1964 for a (Fig. 1). In modern history it belongs to the Ionian islands or Ern-cavrqa modern description;Rontogiannis ("Seven Islands")as the central member of the chain extending from Corfu 1980, pp.5-23. (Kerkyra) to Zakynthos, and the most mountainous: three ranges rising 3. 1980, 30-33 Rontogiannis pp. over 1,000 masl dominate the island's295-km2 andmass.2Long linked to (unpublishedfinds; cf. Sordinas1968); the mainland in nature and name (Strabo [10.2.8] calls it a Xeppo6vaoog; Souyoudzoglou-Haywood1999, p. 4; Homeric Nerikos is described as an in Od. it Runnels 1995, p. 707, fig. 1; Douzougli "axr-(v) 7ircipoto" 24.378), 1999. was a peninsula of the mainland as early as the Palaeolithic, traces of which 4. Murray1982, pp. 224-265, "The appear on uplifted terraces of its western mass and in various caves and Leukas Canal Area,"on the Inselfrage, rock shelters.3 of the and observations history channel, In historic times the narrow neck of land the northeast of on underwaterstructures. joining tip Domingo- the island to the mainland was severed a channel for Foraste1988, pp. 6-48, on the by kept open seacraft, foundation and colonial history of probably when the Kypselid dynasty of Corinth founded the colony of Leukas. Leukas in the late 7th century B.C. (Strab. 7.7.6, 10.2.8).4 Its status as American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org 286 SARAH P. MORRIS AKARNANIA (Plagia Peninsula) (Nerikos?) w Jouvi 6 Stavrotas % Skorpios N y Cape Doukato (Temple of Apollo) Arkoudi 0 5 km THE TOWERS OF ANCIENT LEUKAS 287 Figure 1 (opposite).Map of Leukas island or peninsula fluctuated through time with the navigability of the with inset of Greece,location of canal, while its political identity was controlled by more powerful city- towers. F.Evenson, after Dorpfeld states. In Classical times, the area was active in the Peloponnesian War based on von Mar6es 1927, map 2, 1907, as an ally of its mother city and enemy of Athens (Thuc. 1.46, 2.85-92, map1 3.69-81, 94); in the 4th century it remained loyal to Corinth until 368 B.C. (IG 1I2104), and fell to Macedon with Athens after the Battle of Chaironeia in 338 B.C. Thereafter part of Akarnania, Leukas was capital of the Akarnanian League from 230 to 189 B.C. (Polyb. 5.5; Livy 33.17.1) and sided with Macedon against Rome. The site of significant battles during Roman campaignsin Greece, especiallyin 197 B.C. (Livy 33.16-17), Leukas was abandoned and its population relocated to the new city of Nikopolis after Octavian'svictory at Actium (Anth. Pal. 2.13).5 According to chance finds on the island and some late burials, a lim- ited population still occupied the deserted city in the Roman period, with a garrison when such areasbecame rcsptoxtSeg [rT6Xec] (Strab. 10.2.2) of Nikopolis; eventually its acropolis became a medieval fortress. The ship channel remained a vital alternativeto the windy western coastline, offer- ing protected passage along the east coast, secured by a series of forts. Santa Maura (founded in 1300 by the Orsini) was the first of these, soon the name of the island, and was succeeded by Turkish (1479-1684), Vene- tian (1684-1797), French, Russian, and British (1810-1864) occupations.6 Early modern travelersinterested in the island's history offer the first de- scriptions of its ancient monuments, chiefly those of the city of Leukas.7 The liberation of the Ionian islands from the British protectorate in 1848 delivered Leukas into Greek hands again. In modern archaeology, Leukas has attracted attention chiefly as an ancient candidate for Homeric Ithaka, an identity long argued in print before being explored in the field by Wilhelm D6rpfeld, during the last forty years of his life. From 1901 until his death on the island in 1940, this 5. See Chrysos 1987, esp. N. Pur- remarkable architect, and assistant to Heinrich cell, "The Nicopolitan Synoecism and archaeologist, longtime Schliemann his conviction that Leukas in its Roman Urban Policy,"pp. 71-90; pursued matched, topogra- E. Kirsten,"The Origins of the First phy and archaeology,the epic home of Odysseus. Refused support for this Inhabitantsof Nikopolis,"pp. 91-98; mission by the Deutsches Archiologisches Institut, he was assisted by pri- and W. Hoepfner,"Nikopolis-Zur vate donors ranging from KaiserWilhelm II to Leslie Walker Kosmopoulos des 129- Stadtgrindung Augustus,"pp. Harrison. His in letters and as well as in 133. Unlike defeated mainlandcities andJane results, published reports Alt-Ithaka, revealed a culture much older than the one he as (Kassope,Ammotopos: Lang 1994), sought (much Leukas remaineda Roman post with Schliemann found at Troy), in a group of Early Bronze Age tumuli on the sparseoccupation: Rontogiannis 1980, plain of Nidri, which are still the most impressive burials of the third- pp. 181-203; Pliakou 2000. millennium Aegean.8 Elsewhere, the cave of Choirospilia (Figs. 1,49) sat- 6. 1988 assembles Rontogiannis isfied in name and the habitat of Homer's swineherd, Eumaios, but ancient sourcesand modern accounts setting its Neolithic contents offered more to than to with illustrations,and describesthe Aegean prehistory epic epi- sodes n. was for a Late island'ssuccessive capital cities. (below, 63). Equally frustrating D6rpfeld's quest 7. Foremostamong these are Bronze Age palace and Mycenaean settlement to match Homeric descrip- Goodisson 1822, esp. chapterVII; tions of Ithaka; the later second millennium of prehistory on Leukas re- Leake Oberhummer 1835, pp. 14-21; mains to this day remarkablyscant in finds. 1887; Partsch 1889. In the course of his Homeric quest, Dorpfeld and his colleagues re- 8. Dorpfeld 1927, pp. 206-250; (in field notebooks and the final of other Hammond 1974; Branigan1975; ported publication 1927) antiq- Muller 1989; Souyoudzoglou- uities on Leukas from Greek and Roman times. The southwestern prom- Haywood 1999, pp. 17-37. ontory of the island known as Doukato (Fig. 1), a candidate for Cape 288 SARAH P. MORRIS Figure2. Late Classicaland Helle- nistic cemeterysouth of Leukascity wall, fromnortheast (1990) Leukatas (site of Sappho's poetic leap from the "white rock of Leukas"), was the site of a Doric temple to Apollo, studied along with other Classi- cal temples (at Agios Ioannis sto Rodaki, north of Marantochori) and forts (Agios Georgios across from ancient Leukas).9 In the Nidri plain, Dorpfeld's innovative techniques of exploration, particularlyhis deploy- ment (if not invention) of the Suchschnittin deeply buried levels, have recently been appreciated.?1His notebooks, now divided between the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut in Athens and the small Dorpfeld collection in Nidri, are invaluable records of the island's antiquities and topography,especially for researchconducted after the appearanceof Alt- Ithaka and not published elsewhere.11 After Dorpfeld's death and the Second World War, there was little systematic investigation of the island's antiquities until the growth of the modern capital city (across from Santa Maura) and escalation of construc- tion necessitated salvage work by the Greek Archaeological Service. Un- der the successive ephorates of Petros Kalligas (Corfu) and, in Ioannina, Elias and Ioanna Andreou (1978-1988) and Angelika Douzougli and Kostas Zachos (1988 to present), the ancient city of Leukas and its cem- eteries (Fig. 2), in particular,have been rescued from the bulldozer.12The fortification walls of the city (Fig. 3), a polygonal circuitwith square,ashlar towers defined by vertical drafted corners, once enclosed an urban area several kilometers square, joining an acropolis (known as "Koulmo,"its medieval name derived from culmen) to the shoreline along the ship 9. Partsch1889, p. 18; Dbrpfeld the first six notebooks in Nidri (I-VI), 1996) identifies sixty Classicalsites in 1927, pp. 131-132,271-274, pls. 12- chroniclingresearch conducted from the island. 13; Rontogiannis1980, pp. 237-252. 1901 to 1913; the remainingthree 12. In addition to annualreports On Agios Georgios, see below, n. 71. notebooks in Nidri (VII-IX) describe of discoverieson Leukas in ArchDelt 10. Snodgrass1987, pp. 18-24; furtherwork in 1913 and excavationsin (1970-1995), see Andreou 1975, 1980; cf. Kilian 1982, pp. 50-51. These 1931, 1934, and 1935. I am gratefulto Andreou 1990; Douzougli and Zachos exploratorysoundings totaled 189 KlausHerrmann of the Deutsches 1994. For a summaryof earlierwork, trenches,and measured9.5 km in ArchaologischesInstitut in Athens and see Kalligas1977, 1982. A systematic total length; illustratedin Dorpfeld Dimitrios Stergiotis,former guard of topographicalsurvey of the ancient 1927, pls. 31-32. antiquitiesin Nidri, for their assistance city was initiated by the Ephorateof 11.